New to chickens!

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Zazian

Zazian

Hatching
May 27, 2015
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Hello! We are a new to chickens. My son had chicks at school that hatched and we have adopted two. My husband was interested due to fond memories of his grandfather raising them to when he was a child. We can't have a rooster and did our best to pick what we thought looked like pullets from the five we got to choose from. The two we picked had more feathers than the rest of the chicks. They were miixed varieties but I was told that they could be an assortment of Barred Rock and Rhode Island Reds but that was just a guess. Two weeks In and they have grown a lot! They are now 3 weeks old and I think we may have a rooster. The comb is developing and there seems to be growth of a waddle from pictures I have seen at this age for determining a rooster at 3 weeks. The other chick does not have a comb or sign of waddle yet. I am able to contact the farmer and trade my chick in for a pullet. But before I do I was wondering if I should wait and see for a bit longer.
Also...would it be recommended when trading her (him) in should I add another chick to make a total of 3? We wanted just a few but having 3 seems to insure if something happens to one thr wouldn't be a lonely chicken by herself. Not sure how much of a differ edit really would be just adding one more. Also- at 3 weeks do I need to separate a new chick from the one we already have when they are this young and for how long?
We are getting the supplies for the coop now. I was thinking a 5x4 coop and a run the same size or bigger.
I love this website! what a vast amount of information. I have had a lot of fun looking through the hundreds of coop photos and reading posts.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions
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I'm not good at guessing breeds. I sorta , think is may be a boy but, don't take my word for it. You can post the photo at "what breed or gender is this." and other greeters coming along will probably offer their opinions. I would wait it out another week or two. If the comb continues to get redder and the wattles bigger, I would go with it being a cockerel.

If you do have to trade him in, I think getting two or three chicks (hopefully girls) would be the way to go. Your older ones will be too old for merging with the young. They have reached the stage of pecking order and could be too rough for any new babies. So 2 or 3 new ones raised together won't be lonely. Oh heck get them all - how can anyone leave fuzzy butts behind?
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Thank you :)
drumstick diva-If I wait a couple weeks and this one proves to be a rooster, I will still have one 5 week old girl. Is that what you mean by already too old to merge? They grow up so fast!
 

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